CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — You might remember the freeze of 2021 where thousands of turtles needed to be rescued after becoming “cold-stunned” in the water. While that was not the case for last week’s cold snap, there were still several hundred turtles affected.
Over the weekend, different conservation groups worked together to rescue sea turtles who were stunned by the cold water after recent freezing temperatures.
The Texas State Aquarium received 297 turtles and over 100 at the Texas Sea Life Center, and it didn’t stop there.
3NEWS spoke with Marine biologists in the Coastal Bend who are saying the recent cold snap is having a harmful effect on our local population of turtles.
“One thing on campus here, we have the Conrad Blucher Institute, and they have a monitoring program that’s set up to be able to predict water conditions in the bays,” Jace Tunnell with TAMU-CC’s Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies said.He said the cold conditions are detrimental to certain species in our water.”There’s certain species like sea turtles and fish that once those water temperatures get to a certain level, their metabolism basically shuts off and they either drowned or they get washed up on shore and then predators can get to them,” Tunnell said.Phillippe Tissot sends out data to area volunteers and organizations ahead of winter events where he “forecasts” the conditions in the Laguna Madre. Anything under 50 degrees Fahrenheit is a concern, but 46.5 degrees Fahrenheit is when there is potential for a mass stranding event.”So being able to know that this kind of cold-water temps are coming really helps people get together and start going out and looking for the turtles before it’s too late,” Tunnell said.One of the many groups who was out braving the cold waters was the U.S. Coast Guard.”We were asked by the Sea Turtle Salvage Network and Recovery to go ahead and use our assets in search of these coast sea turtles,” USCG Senior Chief Nick Freeman said. “So all three of the Coast Guard’s stations here in the sector Corpus Christi have participated, including two aircraft out of Corpus Christi as well. So, in all, we are using our assets, we have a shallow water boat that’s designed to get in kind of hard-to-reach areas.”That’s where they got to put their special skillset into action.”Absolutely, I mean, the marine life is just as important,” he said. “It’s just another one of the missions the Coast Guard does. It’s not all about pulling the people out of the surf and off burning boats, so we’re glad to help and it put a smile on our crew’s faces,” he said.